NIAGARA COUNTY
Wells near ordnance site safe, initial tests show

[Operative word-"initial"]

6/24/2005
LOCKPORT - Testing of nine wells in the Lewiston-Porter area has disclosed no water contamination, Niagara County Public Health Director Paulette M. Kline said Thursday.

[The testing results were not available as of today according to Ms. Kline]

Five more wells are to be sampled by mid-July in the county's study of alleged ground water contamination stemming from the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works site, where nuclear waste from the World War II atomic bomb project is landfilled.

[According to past statements by the NCHD, there are NO WELLS used for potable water]

[According to US Army Corps meeting minutes-There are no wells being used for humans]

[Why is the first thing tested and announced today, only wells]

["Alleged" sure sounds like this was precipitated by the radio show]

Kline said the testing didn't result from any known contamination, but from public fears.

"We're doing it because over the long term, there had been community concern," Kline said. "We're trying to prove there's nothing to worry about."

["Long term"- Does this mean after 60+ years of death and waste, now it's time to test?]

[I wonder if a scientist on the radio is a part of "community concern?"]

[In science, you never start out to prove a negative! NOT Very scientific at all-Ask a scientist]

[In science you start out to conduct science! Never with a preconceived outcome. Never]

The county also has gathered $105,000 to pay for a compilation of past federal and state testing data on the site.

[Is this the grant that says "we must prevent another Love Canal PR crisis at all costs!"]

[$50,000 dollars was collected for the above PR reason--I have the grant language]

[This $105k dollares is being spent to keep the residents in the dark.]

[M.O.N.K. = The Ministry of Not Knowing--thats who's really in charge of this]

MORE TO FOLLOW, Regards, Lou Ricciuti

NIAGARA GAZETTE  Saturday, June 25, 2005  Page 1A, top fold
Headline
Safety of water in question
Two renowned scientists push for testing; LOOW site considered cause of problem
by Aaron Besecker

       Plutonium found three years ago on a radiological dump site in northwest Niagara County and 17 years ago near the mouth of the Niagara River poses a chance of contamination to drinking and ground water, according to a pair of renowned radiation experts.
       "Buried radioactive debris, which the government considered significant to recover and place in drums for storage eventually in Texas, could certainly have been leaching into wells, upper aquifers and the Niagara River for a long time," said Rosalie Bertell, (past) president of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health.
       There is no known safe level of plutonium exposure.

       Still, Niagara County's top public health official said the situation warrants public concern, but would not conclude that potential health risks exist for any county residents.
       Based on findings by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environment Canada, the Canadian federal environmental agency, amounts of plutonium found at two local sites create a serious health hazard. Water and air testing should be conducted, and possible evacuation and isolation of areas near the former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works site should be considered, according to Bertell and Dr. Janette Sherman.
       Sherman also believes plutonium in the river "more likely than not" leached from the LOOW property--the site used by the U.S. government to bury many types of radiological wastes, 

(SEE WATER ON PAGE 6A)   MAP

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  including those from the Manhattan Project during WWII-era federal weapons program.

       "Consideration should be given to declaring the site and some surrounding areas as off-limits and closing it to all public access," Sherman wrote, in an e-mail to local environmental group Residents for Responsible Government.
       "Wells to measure ground water contamination, monitoring at the outfall of Four Mile Creek and air monitoring for chemical and radiological emissions should be put in place."

       Sherman worked in radiation and biologic research at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory at Hunter's Point in San Francisco and at the University of California nuclear facility. She served on the advisory board for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Substances Control Act from 1976 to 1982. She also worked as an advisor to the National cancer Institute and the EPA.
       Bertell also founded the International Medical Commission Chernobyl and was a founding member of the International Commission of Health professionals.
       Both scientists eliminated other potential sources of plutonium in the river, including weapons testing done in the 1960s and the general proximity of the West Valley nuclear facility in Cattaraugus County.

       The 1988 Environment Canada report concluded the plutonium in the Niagara River must have come from West Valley. At the time the report was written, however, plutonium in LOOW had not yet been discovered by the Army Corps.
       Environment Canada was investigating water quality in the Great Lakes for its 1988 report.
       In 2002, the Army Corps investigated a part of the LOOW site known as the Rochester Burial Site, and found quantities of plutonium in an animal bone, buried laboratory debris and subsurface soils.

       Niagara County Public Health Director Paulette Kline, who was unaware of Environment Canada's 17-year old report, said the scientists have no proof of any local water contamination.
       "They are valid concerns based on the type of site (the LOOW)... but I believe it's premature to make any kind of conclusions," she said.
       Water and soil samples tested by the county in the past have never come up with plutonium, Kline said, However annual tests conducted by the county health department do not test for plutonium.
       Kline dismissed the scientist's claims because they are based on "incomplete scientific evidence."

       Sherman, who recently appeared on "Dialogue," a radio show on WLVL, with local environmentalist Lou Ricciuti to discuss their concerns about the plutonium, is a very respected scientist but is unnecessarily alarming the public, Kline said.
       "I just don't feel that she's been a part of that ongoing dialogue," Kline said. "I wouldn't make assumptions for another community."

       A state health department representative said the agency is aware of tests conducted by the U.S. Army Corps at the LOOW site. Based on those tests, the "trace amounts" of plutonium found are isolated to the site and have no impact on the local drinking water supply, said Jeffrey W. Hammond, spokesman for the state Department of Health.
       An Army spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.

       Army Corps reports have indicated that ground water in the region flows northwest from the LOOW site toward Lake Ontario.

       Meanwhile, the county health department is moving forward with its "LOOW initiative" to gather together all existing data on the site. Officials are also currently more than a year into the planning of a well testing program, Kline said.
       The initiative is based on residents' general health concerns about living near the LOOW site, and is not an outgrowth of a specific concern about plutonium.

       The tests, to be done by a certified hydrogeologist, will look for 11 different categories of radioactive and chemical contaminants in both active and inactive wells in the county. Standards for the upcoming tests were developed since January of this year. Actual samples of well water is scheduled to begin next month.

       Results of the tests will help assuage residents' concerns about contamination.
       "What we need to do is have some time," Kline said.

       County health officials have already had plenty of time to deal with the situation, according to Ricciuti, the local environmentalist who has consistently pushed for awareness of health issues related to the LOOW site.

       He was the person responsible for Sherman and Bertell's involvement in the plutonium issue locally and has been personally researching the topic for five years, tracking down various obscure documents that tell the LOOW story.
      
"There's a great chance these materials have spread and created more widespread contamination," Ricciuti said.  "Further contamination could have been prevented had a 1972 order from the state Health Department been enforced locally," Ricciuti said.
       Such action may have stopped "a cleanup of perhaps unprecedented scale."

       "Our own health department did not follow a state health department edict," Ricciuti said. "It's been a downward slide from there."

Contact Aaron Besecker (716) 282-2311 Ext. 2263

"There are about 15 active wells in the county -- used for many things including watering lawns, washing cars, as well as for drinking, Gwozdek said. Ten of those wells have already been surveyed by health department officials to decipher well depth, diameter, well location in relation to house septic system as well as other details in preparation for the actual sampling."

Apparently Mr. Gwozdek is unaware that Royalton is in Niagara County. Could someone please get him a map? Several rural roads out here do not have public water. Lots of private residences and farms still using wells out here.

"The county also has gathered $105,000 to pay for a compilation of past federal and state testing data on the site."

Is this the health science project grant? Why do we need more money for them to do what they are paid for? This issue has been way to quiet, any word from those county officials yet Scott?

shughes wrote:

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shughes wrote:
Maybe they are waiting for you to be on vacation. That way they can say they tried to contact you, but you didn't get back to them.
So did they leave a message while you were gone?

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Anonymous wrote:

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What day?

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The calendar say's Thursday anon. That gives you time to put some questions together.

But I'm guessing you already know what to ask.